Messi Hits Four Goals Past Eibar As Barca Stay Top

Lionel Messi scored four goals as Barcelona thrashed Eibar 6-1 at the Camp Nou Tuesday night to go top of the LaLiga table and win all of their first five games of the campaign.

Paulinho and Denis Suarez were also on target for the Blaugrana while Sergi Enrich got Eibar’s consolatory goal.

The first chance of the match went Eibar’s way in the third minute, Sergi Enrich latching onto a through pass but his shot was too tame to trouble Marc ter Stergen.

The home side however went ahead in the 20th minute as Messi converted from the penalty spot after right-back Nelson Semedo was brought down in the Eibar box.

New signing Paulinho doubled Barcelona’s lead in the 38th minute when he headed home from a corner kick.

Denis Suarez showed great composure to score Barca’s third goal of the night in the 53rd minute. The youngster reacted to a rebound after Messi’s low shot was punched out by Eibar’s keeper but Paulinho’s back-heeled pass set up the move.

Enrich got a goal for the visitors in the 57th minute to deny Ernesto Vervede’s team a clean sheet.

Messi grabbed his second goal of the game two minutes after Eibar’s goal when he evaded close marking by the defenders to place the ball beyond the goalkeeper.

The Argentine then scored his third which was the 49th hat-trick of his Barcelona career when he picked up a pass from Paulinho before firing past keeper Marko Dimitrovic despite the attention of three defenders.

Messi made it 6-1 for Barcelona three minutes to the end of the match when he poked home an Aleix Vidal cutback moments after Ruben Pena saw his strike hit the foot of the post.

Messi has now scored nine goals in five league matches this season, 12 goals in all competitions.